indignation; for in part
of it he takes occasion to rally the corruptions of the established
clergy, of whom he was no favourer; and first discovers his acrimony
against archbishop Laud; he threatens him with the loss of his head, a
fate which he afterwards met, thro' the fury of his enemies; at least,
says Dr. Newton, I can think of no sense so proper to be given to the
following verses in Lycidas;

Besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw,
Daily devours apace, and nothing said;
But that two-handed engine at the door,
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.

Upon the death of his mother, Milton obtained leave of his father to
travel, and having waited upon Sir Henry Wotton, formerly ambassador
at Venice, and then provost of Eaton College, to whom he communicated
his design, that gentleman wrote a letter to him, dated from the
College, April 18, 1638, and printed among the Reliquiae Wottonianae,
and in Dr. Newton's life of Milton. Immediately after the receipt of
this letter our author set out for France, accompanied only with one
man, who attended him thro' all his travels. At Paris Milton was
introduced to the famous Hugo Grotius, and thence went to Florence,
Siena, Rome, and Naples, in all which places he was entertained with
the utmost civility by persons of the first distinction.

When our author was at Naples he was introduced to the acquaintance of
Giovanni Baptista Manso, Marquis of Villa, a Neapolitan nobleman,
celebrated for his taste in the liberal arts, to whom Tasso addresses
his dialogue on friendship, and whom he likewise mentions in his
Gierusalemme liberata, with great honour. This nobleman shewed
extraordinary civilities to Milton, frequently visited him at his
lodgings, and accompanied him when he went to see the several
curiosities of the city. He was not content with giving our author
these exterior marks of respect only, but he honoured him by a Latin
distich in his praise, which is printed before Milton's Latin poems.
Milton no doubt was highly pleased with such extreme condescension and
esteem from a person of the Marquis of Villa's quality; and as an
evidence of his gratitude, he presented the Marquis at his departure
from Naples, his eclogue, entitled Mansus; which, says Dr. Newton, is
well worth reading among his Latin poems; so that it may be reckoned a
peculiar felicity in the Marquis of Villa's life to have been
celebrated both by Tasso and Milton, the greatest poets o